Above: the training workshop at Haiti’s Club Indigo hotel (Photo: OP Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti President Michel Martelly launched a two-day workshop Wednesday aimed at raising awareness about corruption and drug trafficking in Haitian society.

Martelly was joined by United States Ambassador to Haiti Pamela White and Godson Aurelus, the director-general of Haiti’s National Police at the workshop, which was held at the Club Indigo hotel in Port-au-Prince.

“Youth without drugs remains one of the long-term objectives of the project,” said David Basile, director of CONALD, Haiti’s National Commission for the Fight Against Drugs. “A healthy CONALD is called upon to mobilize the energies of all the forces of the nation.”

Aurelus, who was first appointed as Haiti’s top police official in August, pledged to bring corrupt actors and drug traffickers into Haiti’s courts, stressing that the country’s police would work closely “within the law.”

Haiti’s president said he would seek to provide the sector with “modern” legislation to help the country better coordinate and harmonize its fight against illegal drugs and corruption.

“The idea that drugs are a source of job creation and wealth is an illusion for people suffering from unemployment, particularly young people who might succumb to the temptation of easy money,” Martelly said. “Tremendous efforts are needed to raise awareness that traffickers do not benefit from impunity from the justice system or complacency in society.”